Internal-combustion rotary motor



y 7, 1948. R. K. GARNUCH INTERNAL-COMBUSTiON ROTARY MOTOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 15, 1946 3 Robert K. Gar/rum July 27, 1948. GARNUCH 2,445,877

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ROTARY MOTOR Filed Nov. 15, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Roberf K. 6am uc/r July 27, 1948. GARNUCH 2,445,877

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ROTARY MOTOR Filed Nov. 15, 1946 5 Sheet-Sheet s 2 Fig. 4'

Robert K. Garnuch V Qwuwwtva Patented July 27, 1948 UN l TED STATES PATENT OFFICE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ROTARY MOTOR Robert K. Garnucli, Houston, Tex.

' Application November 15, 1946, Serial No. 710,169

8 Claims. 123-14) This invention relates to an internal combustion rotary motor.

An object of the invention is to provide a motor of the character described having a novel arrangement of the combustion chamber therein.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an internal combustion rotary motor having an internal combustion chamber and a compression chamber associated therewith the volume of which gradually increases, as the rotor revolves throughout a major portion of the rotation of the rotor.

It isanother object of the present invention to provide a motor of the character described equipped with a novel type of lubricating means.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a motor of the character described equipped with means for scavenging the external surface of the rotor and the internal walls of the motor casing.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an internal combustion rotary motor wherein the motive fuel passes through the rotor into the combustion chamber to preheat the fuel and cool the rotor.

A still further feature of the present invention resides in the provision of means for controlling the intake of the motive fuel for controlling the ratio of the explosions with relation to the rotations of the rotor.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following specification which is illustrated by the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the motor.

Figure 2 is an enlarged, cross, sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a, fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a'fragmentary, plan view, partly broken away as viewed on the line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary, sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is an elevational view, partly in section, of the valve controlling gearing taken on the line 'l'l of Figure 1, and

Figure B is a fragmentary, end view of a rotor showing also the coacting part of the corresponding casing I.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings wherein like numerals of reference designate the same parts in each of the figures, the numerals l designate similar rotor casings, four being shown in assembled relation and which are separated by the similar partitions I and which are enclosed by similar end caps 3v and 4. This assembly constitutes the motor case. This motor case has the connected water circulating chambers which are indicated throughout by the numeral 5. There is an inlet 6 and a discharge 1 providing for the circulation of a cooling fluid throughout the motor case and the partitions thereof.

Within each rotor casing i there is a rotor 8. These rotors are of similar construction. Each rotor is sealed, on each side,from the adjacent parts of the case, by means of the annular seal rings 9, 8;

The rotors 8 are splined, or otherwise secured to, the shaft l0. That portion of the shaft extending through the rotors is hollow, as shown in Figures 2 and 4, and as illustrated in Figure 1, the closed end of the shaft has a flange ll thereon for connection to the shaft, or other part to be driven. Each rotor is hollow and is provided with the longitudinal radial partitions l2 and i3, provided with breather openings I4 and I5 therein, as well as the solid partitions l8 and I1. Between the partitions l2 and I3 each end. wall of each rotor has the breather openings 8d.

Each rotor is, therefore, divided into the internal chambers l8, l8 and 20 which are connected by the perforations l4 and I5 and the chamber 2| which is closed.

The hollow shaft II and each rotor hub are provided with the fuel inlet port 22 through which the motive fluid is admitted into the corresponding closed chamber 2|.

The end walls of each chamber II are provided with the outlet ports 23, 23 and the motor case is provided with channels 24, 24 whose inner ends register with the corresponding outlet ports 23 with each rotation of the corresponding rotor.

Each rotor casing l is provided with an inside transverse pocket 25 extending the full width thereof, as more clearly shown in Figures 2 and 4, and which the corresponding channels 24 enter.

The rotors turn, in the present illustration, in the direction indicated by the arrow in Figure 2. Each rotor is provided with an external transverse pocket 2'6 which extends the full width thereof, as shown in Figure 4, and these pockets 25 and 26 register, successively, with each rotation of the rotor to form an explosion chamber having the opposing radial end walls 21 and 28 which form abutments against which the explosive force may effectively actto cause rotation of the rotor.

As the rotor turns. upon registration of the outlet ports 23 with the inner ends of the channels 24, an explosive charge will enter the correspondgber. as shown in Figured...

case thus providing an arcuate space about each rotor, which is separated into a compression chamber 29 and an exhaust chamber 29a as later explained.

Spaced behind each pocket 25 of the motor case there is a U-shaped sealing member designated generally by the numeral 20 and which embraces the corresponding rotor. Each sealing member is mounted to move radially in a transverse inside slot 3| in the corresponding casing I and is maintained in close contact with the periphery of the corresponding rotor by means of a pressure spring 32. The arms of the sealing member closely embrace the corresponding rotor and extend inwardly to the corresponding seal rings 9 and are countersunk in radial side grooves 23 in the adjacent end walls of the corresponding rotor casings i. The sealing member Ill thus forms the rear wall of the compression chamber 29.

Embracing the cam 28 and countersunk into the rotor there is a U-shaped seal 24 in constant contact with the inner wall of the corresponding rotor casing and whose arms extend inwardly to the corresponding seal rings 9, as shown in Figure 2, and in front of each seal 14 and countersunk into the corresponding rotor there is a transverse scraper blade 35 which moves in contact with the inner wall of the corresponding rotor casing i as the rotor turns, and which scavenges said inner wall and keeps the same cleansed of carbon and foreign matter which adhere to said wall. This foreign matter is discharged, with the exhaust, out through an exhaust pipe 26 which connected into the exhaust chamber 29a between the rotor and its casing I.

In front of the exhaust pipe 38, leading from each rotor casing, and between said exhaust pipe and the sealing member 30, there is a transverse inside seat 21 in which there is located a scraper blade 38 extending the full width of the corresponding rotor. This blade is fixed to a radial stem 38 which works in a bearing in the corresponding casing and operating against said stem there is a compression spring 40, housed within the corresponding casing, and which holds said blade 30 yieldingly against the periphery of the corresponding rotor to scavenge said periphery respective chambers 2i and thence into-the explosion chambers.

Between the supercharger and the motor there is a conventional distributing means indicated generally by the numeral 45 whereby the electrical current is distributed to the sparkplugs 48 with which the respective explosion chambers are equipped, two plugs being shown for each cham- The motive fluid in passing through the rotors is heated and the rotors are correspondingly cooled.

, As illustrated inFigure 2. there are oil inlet passageways 41 with a suitable connection 48 at the outer end of each for the connection of an oil conducting hos or pipe thereto and each connection 48 is equipped with a control valve 50 for controlling the supply of lubricant. The passageways 41 terminate between the ends of the rotors and the adjacent stationary parts of the motor case and the lubricant introduced through the passageways ll willbe distributed by cenand remove all deposits of carbon or other foreign matter therefrom which passes through the corresponding exhaust pipe 26. The blades 35 and 38 are shaped so that they will readily pass each other without interlocking. The pocket 25 is provided with one or more circumferential bars or tracks 4! to support the blade 35 as it passes by said pocket and the pocket 28 has one or more circumferential tracks or bars 42 to support the blade 38 when the pocket 26 comes opposite said blade to prevent said blade from dropping into said pocket 28. r

In front of the motor about the forward end of the shaft Hi there is a conventional type of supercharger 43 whereby the motive fuel de-.

livered from the carburetor 44 into said shaft is forced through the shaft and ports 22 into the trifugal force, throughout the contracting areas between the rotors and the case. There are corresponding overflow passageways 5i leading outwardly through the motor case through which an over supply of lubricant may be drained from the motor.

The electrical distributing system may be enclosed by a' suitable housing 62, one end of which is fitted around the adjacent end of the supercharger and the other end of which is fitted around the tubular casing 53 which surrounds the shaft iii and is anchored to the forward end cap 2 of the motor.

Mounted within the intake end of the shaft II between the supercharger and motor there is a disc-like valve SI which is fixed on a transverse shaft 55 and fixed on the respective ends of the shaft 55 there are the arms, as 56, whose free ends have slidable, pivotal, connections with the rods 51, 51.

Mounted on shaft ID, to rotate therewith, there is an annular frame 58 which is in sealed relation with a surrounding fluid tight casing "a forming the inner end of the supercharger. This frame 58 is formed with a plurality of cylinders 59, two being shown, in each of which there is mounted a piston 60 which is attached to the rear end of the corresponding rod 51 and which operate against compression springs, as 0i, confined within said cylinders.

The frame 58 is provided with a series of rearwardly directed fins 82.

Behind the frame 58 and forced within the casing a there is a series of fins 63. The casing 42a is filled with suitable fluid and the fins 82 and 63 will cause an ebullition of said fluid and will create a pressure therein and the fluid will operate against the piston 60 in the cylinders 52 and will gradually force said pistons forward as the speed of fluid 58 increases and this will cause a gradual opening of the valve S4 was to gradually increase the admission of motive fluid into the explosion chambers upon starting of. the motor so as to allow the speed of the motor to pick up gradually and thus avoid clashing of the gearing.

Upon rotation of the shaft Ill and the rotors and upon flring of the charges the rotors will be driven forwardly. The correspondingcompression chambers 29 will increase in capacity to re-- .5 ceive the constantly expanding charges until the cam shaped portions 28a pass the corresponding exhausts 86. This will permit a complete combustion of each charge before it is exhausted.

will not occur with each rotation of each rotor,

that is so that there will be a multiple of rotations of each rotor for each explosion in the explosion chamber thereof. In order to accomplish this, provision has been made for closing the outlet ports 28 intermittently by the slidably mounted valve 88. These valvesare mounted to slide in a the motor case and are fixed to the inner ends of corresponding stems 65 which work through the radial sleeves 86 in the motor case.

The outer ends of these stems have the heads 81 fixed thereon. Mounted to rotate in suitable bearings, hereinafter referred to, there is a cam shaft 88 fixed on which there are the cams 69 arranged to ride against with heads 61. The stems 65 and the corresponding valves 64 are normally held outwardly with the valves in open position by means of strong coil springs 10 which surround the outer ends of the respective stems and are interposed between the heads 61 and the flanges ll of the sleeves 68 but when the cams are in active position upon each.rotation of a cam the corresponding valve will be forced inwardly to closed position, as indicated in Fig,- ure 3.

' Fixed on the rotor shaft l0 there'is a spur gear 12 which is in mesh with an idler gear 13 which is fixed on a suitable shaft 14 and this idler gear: 13 is in mesh with a gear 'li which is fixed on the cam shaft 68. The gear ratio is such that the cam shaft 68 will rotate slower than the shaft M. In the present illustration the cam shaft 68 performs one rotation while the shaft in is rotating twice and the gears are also timed so that the outlet ports 23 will be closed upon registration of said ports with the channels 24 every other revolution of the corresponding rotor to the end that there will be one explosion in each explosion chamber for each two rotations of the corresponding rotor; however, if it be desired that an explosion occur with each rotation of a rotor the cam shaft 68 may be adjusted outwardly so that as the cam shaft rotates its cams 69 will not operate the valves but said valves will remain open. In order to accomplish this result, the ends of the cam shafts are mounted in hearings in guides 18 in the respective cylinders TI. These guides 18 are attached to corresponding ends of piston rods 18 and on the other ends of these rods are the pistons I9. Between the guides 16 and 19 each cylinder 11' is provided with a .partition 80 through which the corresponding rod I8 has a hearing.

There is a common pressure line 8| entering the cylinders I! and through which pressure may be applied to one side of the piston 19 to elevate the guides 16 and the cam shaft 68 so as to carry the cams 69 into inactive position with relation to the valve rods 65. In that position the cam shaft will rotate idly.

Pressure fluid is supplied to the line 8| through a supply line 82. There is also a line 88 connected into the outer end of each cylinder I1 and when the piston 18 is moved outwardlyas explained the pressure fluid above it will be relieved through the line 88.

When it is desired to .move the cam shaft 88 into position where the cams will be active to operate the valves pressure may be applied through the line 88 against the otherside of the pistons I8 and the cam-shaft 88 will then be moved downwardly so that the cams will be in position to operate the valves as the cam shaft rotates.

This movement of cam shaft 68 is indicated by the arrows in Figure 'l.

When pressure is applied through the line 88 against one side of the pistons 18 itxmay be 'relieved from theother side of said pistons through the line 8|.

The cam shaft and cams and the gearing connecting the same with the roller shaft may be completely enclosed by the elongated housing 84 through which the outer ends of the cylinders l1 extend.

The inlet 8 may-be connected into an inlet manifold 88 and the discharge outlets 1 may be connectedinto a discharge manifold 86. I

The exhaust pipes 86 leading from the exhaust chambers 29a are connected into a common discharge manifold 81, as shown in Figure l.

, Each rotor has a radial scraper blade, as 88,

countersunk therein and the walls of the rotor chambershave similar radial scraper blades 89 countersunk therein. These blades 88 and 89 are provided to remove carbon and other foreign deposits from the ends of the rotors and from the adjacent walls of the rotor chambers and this material will be gradually thrown by centrifugal force into the exhaust chamber 29a and ultimately exhausted. 'The forward edges of the blades 88, 89'are beveled, as is the case with the blades 35, 88, as shown in Figure 8, so that they will readily pass each other and not interlock.

' The drawings and description are illustrative merely while the broad principle of the invention will be defined by the appended claims.

What I claim is: 1. An internal combustion motor comprising, a casing having end walls and an inside annular wall, a rotor mounted to rotate therein and spaced radially inwardly therefrom, atransverse cam on the rotor which spans the space between the rotor and casing and moves in contact with the inside wall of the casing as the rotor turns, a seal car- 'ried by the casing which separates said space into a compression chamber and an exhaust chamber, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front of the'seal, said pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge, radial partitions in the rotor providing internal chambers connected by perforations and an internal chamber which is closed, the end walls of the closed chamber being provided with outlet ports and the motor casing being provided with channels which lead. to said combustion chamber and whose inner ends register with the outlet ports as the rotor turns, said rotor having an intake channel leading into the closed chamber through which motive fluidmay enter said chamber and pass through said channels, upon registration of said ports there} with and means for firing the charge.

2. An internal combustion motor comprising,

' a casing having end walls and an inside annula spans the space between the rotor and casing and moves in contact with the inside wall of the casing as the rotor turns, a seal carried by the casing which separates said space into a compression chamber and an exhaust chamber, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front of theseal, said pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge, radial partitions in the rotor providing a closed chamber which is provided with an outlet port and the motor casing having a channel which leads to said, combustion chamber and whose inner ends register with the outlet port as the rotor turns, said rotor having an intake channel leading into the closed chamber through which motive fluid may enter said chamber and pass through-said channel, upon registration of said port therewith, and means for firing the explosive charge in the combustion chamber.

3. An internal combustion motor comprising, a casing having end walls and an inside annular wall, a hollow rotor mounted to rotate in the casing and having "a substantially circular outside wall spaced radially inwardly from the inside wall of the casing, a transverse cam on the rotor which spans the spacebetween the rotor and casing and moves in contact with the insidewall of the casing as the'rotor turns, a-seal carried by the casing which separates said space into a compression chamber and an exhaust chamber, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front of the seal, said pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge, radial partitions in the'rotor providing a closed chamber which is provided with an outlet port and the motor casing having a channel which leads to said combustion chamber and whose inner ends register with the outlet port as the rotor'turns, said'rotore side wall spaced radially inwardly from the inside wall of the casing, a transversecam on the rotor which spans the space between the rotor and casing and moves in contact with the inside wall of the casing as the rotor turns, a seal carried by the casing which separates said'space into a compression chamber and an exhaust chamber, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front of the seal, said pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge, radial partitions in therotor providing a closed chamber which is provided with an outlet port and the motor casing having a channel which leads to said combustion chamber and whose inner end registers with the outlet port as the rotor turns, said rotor chamber through which motive fluid may enter said chamber and pass through said casing chan- 7 nel, upon registration, of said port therewith, a valve for controlling said port, means for timing the movement of the valve in relation to the ro- V tation of the rotor, means for rendering the valve inoperative, and means for firing the charge.

5. An internal combustion motor comprising, a casing having end walls and an inside annular wall, a tubular shaft mounted axially in the casing, a hollow rotor in the casing mounted to rotate with said shaft and having an annular external surface spaced inwardly from the annular wall oi the casing, a transverse cam on the surface of the rotor which spans the space between the rotor and casing and moves in con-- tact with the inside wall of the casing as the rotor turns, a seal carried by the casing which separates said space into a compression chamber and exhaust chamber, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front of the seal, said pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge and which is in communication with said compression chamber, radial partitions in the rotor providing a closed internal chamber therein, said tubular shaft providing an intake channel which terminates in an inlet port leading into said chamber, said chamber being provided with an outlet port and the motor casing being provided with a channel which leads into said combustion chamber and whose outer end registers with the outlet port as the rotor turns, an intake valve mounted in the intake channel, means-for opening and closing said intake valve in harmony with the speed of rotation of said shaft and means for firing the charge in said combustion chamber. I

'6. An internal combustion motor comprising, a casing having end walls and an annular inside wall, a rotor fitted between said end walls and mounted to rotate within the casing and spaced radially inwardly from the annular inside wall thereof, a transverse, peripheral cam on the rotor which spans the space between the rotor and casing and moves in contact with the inside wall of the casing as the rotor turns, a seal carriedby the casing which separates said spaceinto a compression chamber and an exhaust chamber having an exhaust outlet, said rotor having an external pocket behind the cam and the casing having an internal pocket in front. of the seal,-

said-pockets, upon registration, forming a combustion chamber to receive an explosive charge,

means for supplying said chargeinto the combustion chamber, under pressure, means for firing the charge, lubricant inlet passageways which REFERENCES CITED The following references are of file of this patent:

UNITED STATES rATEnTs' Number Name I Date 920,976 Minor May 11, 1909 1,184,114 Matthews -May 23, 1916 1,922,363 napkins Aug. 15,1933

record in the I 

